The prior art contains many designs for cordless telephone systems, all representing variations on a common theme generated by the communications revolution. Cellular phone technology has given rise to one of the fastest-growing industries, and portable, personal communicators are already on the horizon. Examples of cordless telephone systems and accessories are included in the following list of U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,927 to Ventura; U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,219 to Tabe et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,949 to Hamilton et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,814 to Becker et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,274 to Atkinson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,485 to Iwase.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,931 to Tsukada et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,987 to Tsukada et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,550 to Tsukada et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,549 to Hirayama et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,795 to Endo; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,140 to Fathauer et al.
In office and home environments, desk space and work areas are often overcrowded and there have been attempts to design conveniently arranged desktop units which incorporate a telephone and memo pad, pen holder etc. Examples of these are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 288,318 to Yuen, 287,127 to Yuen, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,521 to Alkins, 3,627,182 to Calkins, and 3,118,614 to Mosca.
The flexibility and tremendous mobility afforded by cordless telephone systems has been amply demonstrated. In the office equipment field, the need for convenience and functionality in design continues to drive the search for new and useful products to accomodate busy executives and employees.
With conventional cordless phones, access to the keypad for interaction with voice mail, voice menu and remote ordering systems is complicated by the fact that the oral instructions are directed to the user as the buttons are depressed. Therefore, the user attempts to hold the handset to the ear during button manipulation, making it difficult if not impossible to interact with the remote system. Similarly, use of visual display functions, such as numerical readout for calculators, call duration and time display are limited while the handset is held to the ear. With cordless and cellular systems using a separate handset, the handset cord may be a restriction in many applications and environments.
Most cordless telephone systems utilize an RF link with the base station. A question has arisen as to the safety of using RF transmitters in the handset which is held close to the eyes. Studies have shown this may contribute to formation of cataracts in the eye. No international limit on eye level field strength has been established.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide safe cordless telephone communication systems which achieve a high degree of functionality and convenience based on physical location and layout aspects, while meeting high quality standards in technical performance, without use of RF in the cordless handset.